They gave him a standing ovation.
On Wednesday night, Xi Jinping received a standing ovation from a group of more than 300 U.S. “elites” at a “Welcome Dinner by Friendly Organizations in the United States.”
That’s how Chinese officials and state media characterized the event, at the Hyatt Regency in San Fransisco, attended by U.S. corporate leaders and political heavyweights with close ties to Beijing. It’s hard to dispute their framing: The crowd was a who’s who of Americans with a vested interest in maintaining close ties with the Chinese Communist Party.
The speech that Xi delivered to the gathering was itself fairly unremarkable, and the part that seems to have received the most attention is his announcement that China would send pandas to the San Diego Zoo. But the dinner itself is useful in that it provides an interesting look at the types of people who wield their considerable influence across the U.S.–Chinese relationship.
Their attendance is noteworthy considering that Xi doubled down on the party’s stated aim to annex Taiwan this week and that the U.S. government and numerous human-rights groups have long documented what they describe as the party’s crimes against humanity targeting Uyghurs (in addition to escalating repression across China).
Organizers of the dinner, which cost $2,000 to attend (and $40,000 for access to Xi), are even alleged to have links to some of those abuses: Tibetan activists pointed out that U.S.–China Business Council chairman Marc Casper is also the CEO of Thermo Fisher Scientific, which has played a role in the party’s effort to collet DNA from Tibetans and Uyghurs. The council hosted the dinner alongside the National Committee on U.S.–China Relations, another Beijing-friendly group with an interest in maintaining a close relationship with senior party leaders.
The CCP’s malfeasance did not inhibit attendees of this week’s festivities from giving Xi a standing ovation.
Among the people seated with Xi at what was apparently a very long head table were, per reporting from Bloomberg: Apple’s Tim Cook, BlackRock’s Larry Fink, Blackstone’s Stephen Schwarzman, Bridgewater’s Ray Dalio, Boeing’s Stanley Deal, FedEx’s Rajesh Subramaniam, Mastercard’s Merit Janow, Nike’s Mark Parker, Pfizer’s Albert Bourla, and Qualcomm’s Cristiano Amon.
Though he did not attend the dinner, Elon Musk took part in a reception and photo op with Xi ahead of the dinner, later posting a picture of his handshake with the Chinese leader and the caption: “May there be prosperity for all.”
Several of those executives’ companies have come under public scrutiny and even congressional investigation owing to their alleged role in facilitating human-rights abuses or the Chinese military’s modernization. But the criticisms lodged by human-rights advocates and congressional China hawks were drowned out by coverage of this week’s meeting between Biden and Xi, in addition to the ongoing war in Gaza.
Other attendees included prominent former government officials from both sides of the aisle, including Trump-era ambassador to Beijing and former Iowa governor Terry Branstad and former Biden-administration State Department official Jessica Chen Weiss (who participated as part of a group from Cornell University, where she is now a professor). Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo and Governor Gavin Newsom also joined the dinner to represent the Biden administration and California, respectively.
What is as noteworthy as the roster of attendees is the list of people who steered clear of the dinner or protested it: members of Congress (the dinner took place in former speaker Nancy Pelosi’s district) and human-rights advocates. The latter group publicly and loudly spoke up about what was likely not a topic of conversation at the head table: that the party is not a “normal” regime that should be celebrated, welcomed, or applauded.